


Summer Vacation: At the Zoo

by IridescentPlume



Series: Summer Vacation [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Elephants, Gen, Sisters, Summer Vacation, Zoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 03:09:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15676824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IridescentPlume/pseuds/IridescentPlume
Summary: Summer vacation is just getting stranger for Rebecca and Alison Crick. After Grandma takes them to the zoo, they end up a bit further from home than expected.





	Summer Vacation: At the Zoo

At the Zoo

June was coming to a close and Rebecca and Alison were already bored. They were only a few weeks into summer vacation and they had already done all their favorite things. Rebecca had reread her favorite books, organized her porcelain doll collection, and rearranged the books on her book shelf twice: first in alphabetical order by title and then by author. Alison reacquainted herself with all the bugs under the rocks in Grandma’s garden, climbed all the trees in the neighborhood, and built five sandcastles in the sandbox. Neither girl could think of any more fun things to do so they were both relieved when Grandma announced that she had a surprise for them.

“Because the library is closed for renovations I thought we could do something fun,” Grandma said. Rebecca and Alison glanced at each other quickly before looking away. Grandma didn’t notice their guilty expressions and continued, “I thought we could go to the zoo today.”

Alison perked up. She had been to the zoo with a school trip where they met a zookeeper who had let them pet a real, live snake. “The zoo? I love the zoo! When do we leave?” Maybe if she saw the zookeeper again he would remember her and let her pet the elephant this time.

Grandma smiled. “I just have to pack us some lunch and then we can go.”

In the car ride to the zoo, Alison could barely sit still. She was still imagining what it would be like to pet an elephant. She wondered what they felt like. “I want to see the elephants!” she announced. “They’re so big and they have funny noses.”

“It’s called a trunk, Dummy,” Rebecca said.

Alison crossed her arms. “I _know_. But it _is_ a nose. So I’m not wrong. So there.” She stuck out her tongue at Rebecca.

Rebecca stuck out her tongue back.

“Let’s not argue today,” Grandma said as she pulled into the parking lot. “We are here to have fun. If you want to argue, we can go home.”

“We weren’t arguing,” Rebecca said quickly, “We were discussing.”

They got out of the car and went up to the ticket booth. “Tickets for two kids and one person, please,” Grandma told the lady selling the tickets.

“Hey! Kids are people!” Alison said. The lady at the ticket booth laughed and handed Grandma the tickets. Grandma smiled, thanked her and ushered the girls through the entrance.

Alison spotted the gift store at the entrance of the zoo. On display were silver and gold charm bracelets. Each charm was a different animal. “Ooh!” Alison said, “It’s so pretty. Can I get one? Pleeease?”

“Well…” Grandma said, looking at it. She glanced at the price.

“That’s on sale,” a voice said from behind them. They turned and saw Mrs. Hambel walking up to them. She was wearing a zoo shirt with a nametag. It looked very strange over her usual long grey skirt and colorful jacket. Rebecca thought it looked very silly, especially with the hiking boots Mrs. Hambel had on her feet. Who wore hiking boots with a skirt?

“Why, Mrs. Hambel,” Grandama said to the librarian, “I didn’t know you worked here, as well.”

“I usually don’t,” Mrs. Hambel said, “But now that the library is getting renovations, I needed a temporary job.” She winked at the two girls. They looked at each other, startled. Neither girl knew what to make of Mrs. Hambel ever since that incident in the library. “Those bracelets are only $5.00 each,” Mrs. Hambel told Grandma.

Grandma thought for a moment. “Alright,” she said. She looked at the two sisters, “You can each get one.” Rebecca picked out a gold charm bracelet and Alison took a silver one. They followed Mrs. Hambel to the cash register where she rung them up and then handed them to the girls. “And,” she said as she reached down behind the counter, “with a purchase of ten dollars or more, you get a free book on Animals in Africa.” She handed the book across the counter to Rebecca. Alison tugged it closer so she could get a better look. The book had a picture of the African Savannah on the cover. It was full of yellow grass and had a few sparse trees next to a small watering hole. Zebras were drinking at the water hole and a giraffe was eating the leaves off of a tree. 

“Thank you,” they said together. Rebecca slipped her bracelet on right away and began to flip through the book. Alison shrugged at the book and held her bracelet up in front of her face as she examined each charm. She skipped out of the store still looking at the bracelet.

“Don’t go too far,” Grandma said as she got money out of her purse to pay. “Rebecca, go watch your sister. Make sure she doesn’t wander off.”

“Sure,” Rebecca said. She tucked the book under her arm and followed Alison out of the store. She found Alison sitting on a bench next to the building. She was holding the bracelet out in front of her rolling it between her thumb and finger. She looked mesmerized by the action. “What are you doing?” Rebecca asked.

Alison looked up as Rebecca came over. “Look,” Alison said, “If I do this,” she jingled the bracelet, “it makes sparkles on the wall.”

Rebecca looked at the wall, and sure enough there were spots of light that moved every time the bracelet did.

“It’s like magic,” Alison said. “I have a magic bracelet!”

“It’s not magic, Dummy,” Rebecca said. “It’s the reflection of the sun off the shiny metal. Now put it on before you lose it.”

“You’re just jealous ‘cause you don’t have a magic bracelet.”

“Your bracelet is not magic! Now put it on before you lose it.”

“You’re not the boss of me!” Alison said. And as she spun around to march away from Rebecca, she lost her grip on the bracelet and in flew in the air, landing across the pathway near the bushes.

“Oh, no!” Alison cried.

“I told you so.” Rebecca said with a smirk.

Alison stuck out her tongue and ran across the path. But before she could reach it, a peacock stepped out of the bushes. Alison stopped in surprise. The peacock glanced at the bracelet glinting in the sunlight. Then, in one quick movement, it picked it up. It looked at the girls, the bracelet dangling in its beak, and then turned and disappeared back into the bushes. “No!” Alison said. She ran to the bushes. She got down on her hands and knees and began to crawl into the bushes to follow the bird.

“What are you doing?” Rebecca said. “You can’t do that! You’ll get dirt all over you!”

“I need to get my bracelet back!” Alison disappeared in the bushes.

Rebecca shifted her weight from one foot to another. She didn’t want to crawl in the bushes. There may be spiders. But then she had a thought. _What if Grandma finds me without Alison? I’ll get in so much trouble. I’d rather face spiders than an angry Grandma any day._ So Rebecca also started crawling through the bushes after Alison, muttering about what a nuisance little sisters were. It was very difficult crawling while holding on to a book and trying to look out for spiders. Twice, her hair got caught on a branch and she could feel strands coming out of her neat braid.

In front of Rebecca, Alison crawled out of the bushes and stood up, brushing a few stray leaves and dirt off her overalls. She looked up and was surprised to find herself in open grassland. Long yellow grasses covered gentle hills. A few tall trees with branches that spread out like an umbrella peppered the landscape. A herd of zebra grazed in the distance. At first she thought she had somehow ended up in the zebra exhibit. But then she realized she couldn’t see any fences or buildings. There was no sound of people chatting and laughing like you usually hear in a zoo. The only sounds were the birds calling and the wind blowing the grass.

“I hope you’re happy,” Rebecca said as she crawled out of the bushes. She had not yet noticed their new surroundings. She straightened pulling a twig out of her now messy braid. “I’m a mess, thanks to you. Look at my hair. I’m going to have to completely redo it. Grandma’s going to be really mad we wandered off and got so dirty.”

“Um… Rebecca,” Alison said.

“What?” Rebecca snapped, looking at her sister. And then she caught sight of the landscape. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. She looked behind her at the bush she just crawled out of. Behind the bush was more of the same scenery.

The two sisters looked at each other and then dove back under the bush and crawled through as fast as they could. They came out on the other side of the bush in the grassland. They tried crawling back and forth several times but they did not manage to find a way back to the zoo. They only managed to get dirtier. They finally gave up, and both fell back on the ground, panting.

“This isn’t working,” Alison said.

“Gee, Sherlock,” Rebecca said, “What was your first clue?”

Alison ignored her sarcasm and looked around. “Where are we?”

Rebecca looked at the landscape around her, it looked slightly familiar. She gasped as she realized why. She looked at the cover of her book. The pictures were very similar. “It looks like Africa. Like the savannah. Just like this picture. Look,” she showed the book to Alison. She tried to keep her voice steady for her sister. First the library and now this? What next? Why did these things keep happening to them?

“Africa?!” Alison’s eyes widened and she stared at her sister open mouthed. “We can’t be in Africa, we’re supposed to be at the zoo!”

“I know!” Rebecca was suddenly angry. “And I’d still be there if _you_ hadn’t gone through the bushes! This is all your fault!”

“Nuh-uh! The peacock stole my bracelet! It’s his fault!”

“He wouldn’t have grabbed it if you hadn’t been flinging it around!”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“If you had put it on when I told you to, none of this would’ve happened! Why don’t you ever listen to me?”

“Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you can boss me around! You’re so mean!” Out of the corner of her eye, Alison saw something shimmer in the sun. She looked over and saw the peacock staring at her. It still had the bracelet in its beak. “My bracelet!” she exclaimed, the argument momentarily forgotten. She scrambled to her feet. The peacock turned and ran away, disappearing over a hill. Alison charged after it.

“Alison, wait!” Rebecca called, getting to her feet. Alison ignored her and also disappeared behind the hill. Rebecca stomped her foot in frustration. She hated having to watch her sister. Alison made her so mad. _If she doesn’t want to listen, then fine. She’s on her own._ Rebecca thought, crossing her arms petulantly. Rebecca slowly looked around. _The only problem with that,_ she thought, _is that then_ I’m _alone._ And she really didn’t want to be trapped in the savannah by herself. But at the same time, she also did not want to be the first one to apologize either.

She stood uncertain, near the bush, trying to decide what to do. Suddenly, she heard a shriek coming from the direction Alison disappeared. “Alison!” she shouted, and ran over the hill to help her sister.

When she reached the top of the hill, she saw her sister. Alison was sopping wet and sitting on the ground at the bottom of the slope examining her knee. Rebecca ran down the hill to Alison. As she approached her sister, Rebecca’s foot caught in a hole. She tripped and fell, the book went flying from her hands as she tried to steady herself. She landed with a splash in a stream that ran along the bottom of the hill. Rebecca blinked in surprise. She had not seen the water from the hill. It was completely hidden by the tall grasses. She climbed up the steep bank of the stream on her hands and knees and sat down next to Alison. From this side the water was hidden by the grasses too. “Are you okay,” she asked. She noticed the book lying a few feet away. She didn’t know how she managed to fling the book this far, but at the same time, she also didn’t know how she managed to end up in Africa.

“I dunno. I was chasing the dumb bracelet thief and I fell.” Alison rubbed her arm across her face to wipe the tears away and looked at her knee. “I’m bleeding,” she said. Rebecca looked at Alison’s knee.

“It’s just a scrape. When we get back we can get a Band-aid from Grandma.”

Alison sniffed. “If we get back.”

 “That peacock brought us here; maybe it can get us back. Did you see where it went?”

Alison shook her head and looked around. Ahead of them was a stretch of open ground. About 200 feet to the right was a lot of tall grass and to the left of that was a large patch of very thick brambles. “I think it went in there,” she said pointing to the tall grass.

“Well let’s follow it. Then we can maybe go home _and_ get your bracelet back.”

At Alison’s nod, Rebecca stood up and held out her hand to help her sister up.  Rebecca grabbed the book and then the two of them crept into the grass, being as quiet as possible so they wouldn’t scare the bird away. The grass was so tall that it grew higher than their heads and they had to brush it aside with their hands to clear a path.

After a moment, they began to hear sounds of splashing and what sounded like a lot of very large animals moving around. They hesitated and glanced at each other. Rebecca licked her lips and Alison gulped down a lump in her throat before creeping very slowly forward. She peeked through the grasses and gasped at the sight. “Rebecca,” she whispered, “com’ere.” Rebecca looked out of the grasses and the two sisters stood side by side, admiring the view before them.

Beyond the tall grasses was a shallow water hole. Playing in the water hole was a small family of elephants. There was a baby elephant that was bigger that the two girls put together. The baby elephant used it’s trunk to splash the water to and fro. It frolicked back and forth, spraying water everywhere and waving its big ears. Three adult elephants stood ankle deep in the water. The adults were taking drinks by lowering their trunks to suck water up and then squirting it in their mouths. Occasionally, the baby would stop running around and poke at one of the adult elephants with its trunk and then run off again before the elephant could swat at it.

Alison stifled a giggle. It reminded her of how she annoyed her older sister. She frowned as she thought of something. “Why aren’t there any girl elephants?” she whispered to Rebecca.

“What?” Rebecca whispered back.

“They all have those tusks, I thought only boy elephants have those.”

Rebecca shook her head and opened the book. “It says here that all African Elephants, both males and females have tusks. But with Asian elephants, only the males do.” She grew quiet and continued reading the passage about elephants. Alison watched her for a minute before rolling her eyes. Rebecca was the only person she knew who could read a book about elephants when there was a real one right in front of her.

Alison looked back to the elephant family. She liked how the ivory tusks glinted in the sunlight. Then she frowned as the glint wavered. That glint wasn’t coming from the elephant tusk. It looked like the sparkling reflection her bracelet put on the wall. Excited, she grabbed her sister’s arm and pointed at the elephant. “Look,” she said, “Sparkles! It’s probably from my bracelet! The peacock must be near by!” The reflection seemed to be coming from the left so both girls headed in that direction, staying in the grasses and being as quiet as possible, so the elephants wouldn’t notice them.

 _It should be just over here_ , Alison thought as she moved some grass aside and both girls peeked through. Directly in front of them, a man was holding a large rifle up and looking through a scope. They both realized at the same time that the reflection on the elephant did not come from a peacock with a bracelet but from a hunter with a gun.

They followed the direction of the gun and saw that he was aiming right for the head of one of the elephants. His finger slowly closed on the trigger.

“No!” Alison shouted. The hunter jerked in surprise as the gun went off. Both girls looked at the elephants. The hunter had missed and the shot had startled the elephants. The herd looked towards the grass and then ran in the opposite direction. The girls did not have time to be relieved that the elephants had gotten away safely because at that moment, the grasses were yanked away and the face of the angry poacher glared out at them.

“Who’re you?” he snarled.

“Uh, we’re, uh,” Rebecca stammered as she and Alison stumbled back.

“You made a big mistake, little girlies,” he said.

He lunged at them. They screamed and scrambled away through the grasses. They ran as fast as they could. The grasses whipped at their arms and faces. They could hear him close behind them. The grasses gave way to thorny brambles and the girls had to get down to the ground and crawl through them to avoid the thorns. Alison dove down first and Rebecca followed.

Suddenly, a large hand clamped around Rebecca’s foot and she felt herself being yanked out of the brambles. “Alison!” she cried out as she grabbed a root to keep herself from being pulled out.

Alison turned. She could see the poacher through the brambles. There was a maniacal glint in his eyes as he pulled at Rebecca’s ankle. Alison looked around desperately as she pulled on her sister’s arm. The poachers face was very close to the thorny branches and that gave her an idea. She reached over Rebecca and carefully pulled a branch back as far as she could before letting go. The branch swung back around and hit the man in the head. He cried out grabbing his face and letting go of Rebecca’s ankle. The two girls managed to scramble deeper into the brambles.

“We can’t stay here,” Rebecca whispered after they had rested for a moment to catch their breath. They had gone far enough in the branches that they could not see the poacher at all. They hoped that he did not know exactly where they were either.

Alison whimpered. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know. We need a plan.”

“Like what? We’re just kids. I’m tired and I’m scared and my knee still hurts.”

Rebecca didn’t answer. She just sighed and listened as hard as she could for the poacher. She could hear him stomping around outside the brambles in the direction they had come from. She glanced at Alison, who was poking at her scraped knee. Suddenly, Rebecca got an idea. It was far fetched but it may work. And anyway, it was the only plan she could think of. She looked around trying to get her bearings. She mapped out where they had travelled in her head. When she was sure of where they were in relation to everywhere else they had been, she poked her sister. “Alison,” she said, “I think I may have a plan.” Alison looked at her, hope shining in her tear filled eyes. Rebecca quickly told Alison what she had come up with.

After Alison was sure of the plan, Rebecca led her through the brambles in the opposite direction the poacher was. They could see it clearing up ahead. Rebecca tensed as she slowly peeked out, the book clutched tightly to her chest. She could not see him so she climbed out of the brambles as quietly as she could and then stood alert as Alison came out. Rebecca crept to the left and peeked around the edge of the brambles. She was very careful about where she put her feet so that she would not step on a stick or anything that would make noise. She glanced ahead of her at the hill they had originally come down. She then glanced to the left. The poacher stood facing the brambles, his gun cocked and ready and his eyes alert for movement. She turned to Alison and said as softly as possible, “When I say ‘go,’ run as fast as you can to the hill, okay?” Alison nodded.

“I’ll give you one last chance, girlies,” the poacher said as he aimed in the bushes. “Come out now, and I promise not to hurt you,”

Rebecca bent down and grabbed a few pebbles lying near her feet. She tossed them into the brambles, trying to get them to land as close to the middle as possible. The pebbles rattled the branches and the poacher shot into the bramble.

“GO!” Rebecca yelled. And the two girls raced towards the hill as fast as they could.

The poacher yelled as he spotted them and chased after the girls, trying to reload his gun as he ran.

Rebecca glanced back and saw he was beginning to catch up. “Faster!” She cried. “Keep going!”

She saw Alison reach the hidden stream and jump into it. Alison splashed downstream a few feet and tried to peek back through the grass.

The poacher was close to Rebecca. He reached out to grab her just as Rebecca jumped into the stream accidentally dropping the book into the water. The poacher did not see the steep bank. He slipped and fell in with a splash, dropping his gun. Rebecca half ran, half swam over to where Alison was hiding in the grass. The poacher saw them and came towards them. “You’re causin’ me an awful lotta trouble,” he said.

Alison watched wide eyed as he came closer. She saw the book floating next to her. She picked up the soggy book and threw it at the poacher. “Go away!” she screamed.

He dodged the book and laughed. It landed with a splash behind him. He lunged towards them. They screamed and stumbled back. But suddenly, they were flying, leaving the poachers shocked face behind.

“Wha?” Rebecca managed to get out. She looked around and muffled a scream as she realized what was happening. They were not flying, they were being lifted up by elephant trunks. They were set down gently on the bank. The two elephants that set them down returned their attention to the poacher in the river. They reached down to grab him but he dodged and started running through the river, away from the angry elephants. The two elephants followed, chasing him from the bank. The sisters were left with one adult elephant and the baby. The baby elephant eyed the wet girls curiously. Rebecca wondered if they looked as strange to him as he did to them.

A few minutes later the other two elephants came back. All the elephants looked at the girls.

“Thank you,” Alison said to the elephants. Rebecca just glanced between her sister and the elephants. She had no idea what was going on. Elephants did not rescue little girls. They were just animals. And they wouldn’t understand what “thank you” meant either. She nearly fell over when the elephant gave a nod and then turned away. The whole herd wandered off together.

“What was that?” Rebecca asked when she could speak again.

Alison shrugged. “We saved them so they saved us.” She grinned at her sister. “An elephant never forgets, right?”

Rebecca just looked at Alison. She slowly shook her head. This summer sure was turning out to be really weird.

 “Let’s go,” Alison said. Rebecca nodded and they turned around, went through the river again and started to climb back up the hill. When they reached the top, they saw the peacock standing next to the bushes, the silver charm bracelet still dangling from its beak.

Rebecca and Alison glanced at each other. They both charged the peacock. As the bird disappeared under the bush, both girls took a running dive at it. Rebecca was surprised as she rolled out of the bush with an armful of squawking feathers. Alison rolled out next to her and triumphantly snatched the bracelet from the bird’s beak as Rebecca held on to the bird.

The peacock pecked at Rebecca and she dropped it in surprise. It ruffled its feathers and took off across the cement path.

 _Wait, cement path?_ Rebecca thought as the two of them got up and looked around. Men and women were pushing strollers, children ran by laughing, A man at a gift cart was handing a balloon to a small boy, the smell of french-fries greeted their noses. They were back in the zoo.

“Where have you girls been?” demanded an irate Grandma. “I thought I told you not to wander off too far. And why on earth are you so wet?”

The girls looked at each other. They were both dripping water. Alison looked up at Grandma. “There was a peacock,” she said, “and it stole my bracelet.” She held it up.

“It went into the garden and we tried to get the bracelet back but then, uh, the sprinkler system went on.” Rebecca said.

Grandma raised an eyebrow and looked at their sopping wet clothes. “a sprinkler?”

Alison nodded.

“How could a sprinkler get you this wet?”

The sisters looked at each other. Rebecca shifted slightly, “It’s really hot today,” she said, “and, uh, the water felt good. I guess we just, uh, lost track of time?” She winced slightly and hoped Grandma would buy it. What was she supposed to say? _Gee, Grandma we’re this wet because we were chased by a poacher into a river and then rescued by elephants. Sorry, we promise never to go to Africa again without permission._ Somehow, she didn’t think this would fly.

“And then I fell,” Alison said. She lifted her leg so Grandma could see her scraped knee.

Grandma looked at the knee and sighed. “I expected better from you, Rebecca” she said. Rebecca looked down ashamed.

“It wasn’t her fault,” Alison said. “I wandered off. She told me not to. Sorry.” Alison started to tear up. Rebecca looked at her sister in surprise.

“That’s very good of you to admit that, Alison,” Grandma said. She sighed again and ushered them to the front gate where first aid was. “We’ll fix your knee and then get you two cleaned up. We can continue our day at the zoo if you girls promise not to wander off or play in anymore sprinkler systems.”

“Really?” Alison asked

Grandma smiled. “Yes, really. It is rather hot today. You should dry off quickly.

As they walked past the gift shop to first aid, Mrs. Hambel ran out to them. There was something in her hands. “Oh, girls,” she called. “You forgot this. You must have left it in the gift shop.” She handed them the Animals in Africa book. It looked brand new. Rebecca stared at her and took it wordlessly. Mrs. Hambel smiled and disappeared back into the shop.

Alison and Rebecca shared a look. They were both astonished and confused. As they started walking again, something slipped out of the book. It was a small peacock feather.


End file.
